Issue 17, 2014
From the journal:

Journal of Materials Chemistry B

Metal-coordination: using one of nature's tricks to control soft material mechanics†

Niels Holten-Andersen,‡*a   Aditya Jaishankar,b   Matthew J. Harrington,c   Dominic E. Fullenkamp,d   Genevieve DiMarco,e   Lihong He,f   Gareth H. McKinley,g   Phillip B. Messersmithh  and  Ka Yee C. Leei  

* Corresponding authors

a Department of Chemistry, Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, and the James Franck Institute, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA

b Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
E-mail: adityaj@mit.edu

c Department of Biomaterials, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, 14424 Potsdam, Germany
E-mail: Matt.Harrington@mpikg.mpg.de

d Department of Biomedical Engineering and Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
E-mail: dominic-fullenkamp@fsm.northwestern.edu

e Department of Chemistry, Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, and the James Franck Institute, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
E-mail: vividcolorsglg@yahoo.com

f Department of Biomedical Engineering and Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
E-mail: lihong-he@northwestern.edu

g Department of Biomedical Engineering and Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
E-mail: philm@northwestern.edu

h Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
E-mail: gareth@mit.edu

i Department of Chemistry, Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, and the James Franck Institute, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
E-mail: kayeelee@uchicago.edu

Abstract

Growing evidence supports a critical role of dynamic metal-coordination crosslinking in soft biological material properties such as self-healing and underwater adhesion. Using bio-inspired metal-coordinating polymers, initial efforts to mimic these properties have shown promise. Here we demonstrate how bio-inspired aqueous polymer network mechanics can be easily controlled via metal-coordination crosslink dynamics; metal ion-based crosslink stability control allows aqueous polymer network relaxation times to be finely tuned over several orders of magnitude. In addition to further biological material insights, our demonstration of this compositional scaling mechanism should provide inspiration for new polymer material property-control designs.

Graphical abstract: Metal-coordination: using one of nature's tricks to control soft material mechanics

About
Cited by
Related
Download options Please wait...

Supplementary files

Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C3TB21374A
Article type
Communication
Submitted
03 Oct 2013
Accepted
13 Nov 2013
First published
13 Nov 2013

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2014,2, 2467-2472

Permissions

Request permissions

Metal-coordination: using one of nature's tricks to control soft material mechanics

N. Holten-Andersen, A. Jaishankar, M. J. Harrington, D. E. Fullenkamp, G. DiMarco, L. He, G. H. McKinley, P. B. Messersmith and K. Y. C. Lee, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2014, 2, 2467 DOI: 10.1039/C3TB21374A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements